As a child, Marjorie Sorge was a great fan of Lois Lane and Clark Kent and decided she wanted to be the same kind of journalist: determined, courageous, truthful, and connecting the dots to get to the core of the story.
She set a high bar for herself and worked hard to meet it.
Sorge earned a journalism degree from Michigan State University 1972, working in the International Library to help pay for her education. That job gave her insight into the world outside Michigan and the United States, which helped her understand and cover international auto stories.
She developed a reputation for intuitive, fair reporting, and a deep understanding of the auto industry and labor relations at all levels. She was a premier labor and auto writer at several publications including Automotive News and The Detroit News.
As editor-in-chief of Automotive Industries and managing editor and executive editor of Ward's Auto World, she developed and maintained strong editorial staffs and wrote in-depth stories. When she was named editor-in-chief of Automotive Industries in 1995, Sorge was among the first women, if not the first woman, to hold that title at a major automotive trade publication.
While at Automotive Industries, she also did weekly radio broadcasts on the auto industry for WJR. Later, she developed and launched the Detroit Regional News Hub, which became the go-to place for journalists writing about Detroit and southeast Michigan to find the information for balanced stories about the area.
At that time, the region was fighting to transform itself and change its reputation as an area in decline. A former General Motors executive said, "Marge's career path has been phenomenal, always rising, experiencing, performing exceptionally across all aspects of journalism related to the auto industry, be it corporate, manufacturing, design, execution, strategy, I cannot think of another automotive journalist that I interfaced with who had this depth of relevant experience and exposure to our industry."
By Joe Grimm